Inside Civitatis’ Push to Own the Spanish-Language Tours Market

Este contenido patrocinado ha sido creado en colaboración con un socio de Skift.

In today’s travel landscape, it’s all about the experience. According to a Skift report, experiences are the leading factor in travelers’ destination choices. Skift Research has projected that the global tours and activities sector will reach $300 billion by the end of 2025. However, while giants like Viator and GetYourGuide have dominated the sector on the global stage, Civitatis, a Madrid-based OTA (Online Travel Agency) specializing in tours and activities, serves a very specific corner of the market: Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking travelers.

With more than 630 million native speakers, Spanish is the second most spoken language in the world after Mandarin. Portuguese ranks sixth. In light of this growing sector, Civitatis saw an opportunity to create a platform specifically for booking activities for Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking travelers. Instead of delivering universally translatable content, Civitatis curates hyper-localized experiences and offers in-depth customer support created specifically for each language group.

SkiftX spoke with Andrés Spitzer, newly appointed chief executive officer of Civitatis, to understand how the company makes the trip planning process simple and enjoyable rather than painful, and how a reimagined app is positioning Civitatis as the tours and activities category leader for Spanish and Latin American travelers around the world.

SkiftX: As you step into the role of CEO, what are your top priorities in the first year, and how do you see them shaping the organization’s direction?

Andrés Spitzer: My top priority is to elevate the experience on both sides of our marketplace. We exist to connect travelers with exceptional operators, and my goal is to make that connection flawless, using technology and AI as enablers.

We want to be more than just companions for our travelers — we’re their guides and inspirers. We put the best experiences in the palm of their hand, removing the noise and doubt through a carefully curated model. Our promise is simple: if Civitatis offers it, it’s a guaranteed great experience.

For our operators, we’re dedicated, long-term partners. We build caring relationships with suppliers who share our passion for quality, providing them with the platform, technology, and volume they need to thrive sustainably.

Today, more than 1.2 million travelers experience the world with Civitatis every month, and that number continues to grow, reflecting the strength of our model and our leadership across Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking markets.

Why does Civitatis focus on travelers who speak Spanish and Portuguese?

There are 850 million Spanish and Portuguese speakers worldwide. Booming trends such as e-commerce, mobile usage, and AI adoption in this community make it a key market. We saw the chance to design for that specific audience rather than just translating content. We believe our customers are looking for that level of specific local connection, language tone, and cultural nuance. It creates trust and loyalty, and makes travelers feel that the platform was built for them. Ultimately, we’re looking for global reach with deep local relevance.

What makes Civitatis unique compared to competitors in the space?

There’s a clear move toward experiential travel in the industry. Customers are seeking authentic local experiences rather than generic sightseeing, and the supply side is growing rapidly as well. Even Airbnb is relaunching experiences, but scale alone doesn’t create differentiation. They’re finding that disrupting the space is more difficult than they had anticipated.

We stand out through a blend of human connection and smart technology. We saw that 45% of repeat customers generated 80% of our revenue in 2024. We want to help customers not just once, but every time. Our 9.1 satisfaction score proves the strength of the relationships we’ve built with travelers. 

At the core of our 5+ million traveler reviews is our curation model. We identified that simplifying travelers’ discovery and decision-making processes was a key differentiating factor. Therefore, we curate our marketplace by selecting only the most relevant products for our audience. An example is the Colosseum in Rome, where you will only find three options on Civitatis: the best, carefully curated by our team of experts. On other OTAs, you’ll have to pick one of the 1,500+ Colosseum-listed tours. Good luck with that!

What trends are you seeing in how your audience books and experiences tours?

Social media has become the new travel agent. YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram drive discovery and bookings. Through our Civitatis Creators program, we invite content creators to experience Civitatis and travel with us, allowing them to share their experiences with their audiences. That kind of content is highly relevant for our customers, and it helps us connect with younger audiences who want brands that feel relatable and human. 

The problem is that everybody wants to go to the same places at the same time. The crowds just aren’t sustainable. As a result, popular attractions are limiting access and becoming more deliberate about how they manage visitor flows. We also see many travelers wanting to go off the beaten path. By helping them discover new experiences and locations, we also help local communities avoid overtourism. We will continue to lead with responsibility and transparency, empowering local economies and promoting sustainable tourism.

How do you decide which tours and activities make the cut?

Curation is a discipline for us. We select the gold standard options for each activity and approve only 20-30% of the activities proposed to us, handpicked for authenticity, quality, and operational experience. Simplifying the choice guarantees consistency for the traveler and puts them at the center, making it easy for them to choose the right product.

We then use the users’ reviews and scores as a feedback loop to measure not only customer satisfaction but to ensure that the experience offered, and therefore the operator, aligns with our high-quality standards and curated model. 

What inspired the creation of the new Civitatis app?

In every group, there’s usually one person who does the heavy lifting of planning the trip. In my family, I have three kids and a wife, and it’s always on me. The planning process is painful. You manage different apps, conduct research, and plan each day’s activities. We want to deliver on the promise of travel that feels easy and trustworthy. Another pain point we often see is that customers lack internet access at the destination, making the offline experience crucial. Booking information should be available regardless of your connectivity. 

The new Civitatis app will help bring the entire journey together into one seamless experience, including discovery, booking, and management during the trip. We want to create a true travel companion, not just another transactional booking tool. It’s a unique space where you can plan, execute, and communicate with operators, all in one place. We’re lucky to be the fun part of the trip, and we want to keep it that way. 

Before the new app’s global launch in January, we’re rolling it out in December for a select group of users, our “Civitatis Explorers.” They’ll be the first to experience it and provide feedback. It’s a privileged group of early adopters who will help us refine the final touches before the global rollout.

Ten years ahead, how do you envision Civitatis’ role in the global travel industry?

Civitatis will be the essential digital ally for Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking travelers wherever they go in the world. We’ll continue to deepen our leadership in Spain and Latin America, while selectively expanding into new markets. 

Our next leap will be hyper-personalized travel using AI to tailor recommendations to each traveler’s tastes, language, and context. We’re very proud of the work we do in customer support, and now we’re adding AI to make our teams more efficient and provide them with more context. In the future, we will use AI to be less reactive. If you’re visiting the Alhambra in Granada, we’ll know when you finish your tour, and we’ll be able to recommend the next great thing to do nearby.

To learn more about Civitatis, click here.

This content was created collaboratively by Civitatis and Skift’s branded content studio, SkiftX.